


The Daughter I Always Wanted

by TriDogMom



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, F/M, Family, Family Secrets, HEA, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25940365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriDogMom/pseuds/TriDogMom
Summary: Lucius learns a family secret that Narcissa has kept from him for 20 years.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy
Comments: 45
Kudos: 214





	The Daughter I Always Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> A little something I wrote a while ago but never posted because it's so different than my normal style. I hope you enjoy, my lovies!

Lucius sat at his wife's bedside and held her hand, choking back the tears that threatened to fall.

After twenty eight years of marriage, he knew her hands as well as he knew his own. But the hand he currently held was like a stranger's. Narcissa, always thin, was now emaciated. Each bone on her body pushed against her skin like it was trying to break out. Her blonde hair, normally thick and a few shades darker than his own, lay limp and colourless, her scalp showing in a few places.

Lucius loved being a pureblood. He knew the power that flowed through his body was his magic and it made him better than other people. Malfoys had always been more magically powerful than other pureblood families. But no amount of magical power could cure cancer.

And there was no doubt that Narcissa had pancreatic cancer.

He'd hired the best healers and even taken her to the world's best Muggle doctors at the behest of Draco's Muggleborn wife, Hermione. She'd been the one to notice the changes in Narcissa the year before after she and Draco returned from their honeymoon.

The scans, magical and Muggle, had been lit up like a Christmas tree from where the cancer had spread. Breasts, brains, bones. No matter what, his wife, the love of his life, was dying. No amount of potions, medication, or magic could save her.

"Lucius," Narcissa spoke, her voice fragile.

"You don't need to speak, my love. Save your strength."

"You need to know this. Please, will you listen?"

"Anything for you, me queen."

"Right after Draco was born, I got pregnant again. The Dark Lord was at the height of his power and I didn't want to subject another child to that." Narcissa paused, trying to catch her breath.

Lucius stared at her in shock, not knowing what to say. He never wanted to stop hearing her voice, but he didn't want to hear what she was saying. Lucius had wanted more children from the moment Draco was born; before that really.

They had married as soon as Narcissa graduated from Hogwarts and had tried for years to become pregnant. It wasn't until seven years later, when Snape had created a long lasting fertility potion for each of them that she became pregnant with their son. The day Draco was born, Lucius had cried as he held his son and wife.

To find out now, twenty years later, that she had become pregnant again was nothing short of heartbreaking. Narcissa had always maintained that she was no longer able to have children.

"I hid the pregnancy from you, from everyone," Narcissa continued through laboured breaths. "The only one who knew was Pandora."

"Your friend from Hogwarts?" Lucius asked.

"She was newly married and had just found out she was barren. The Dark Lord was getting stronger, so we decided… we decided that I would hide my pregnancy and she would glamour herself to look pregnant. Xeno never knew. I gave birth to a daughter on the thirteenth of February in '81 at just seven months while I was in France with Pandora. There was damage and I couldn't carry children again."

"And the child? Our daughter?" His voice cracked as he asked.

"Pandora took her home and raised her as her own. She let me name her. Your name means 'light', Lucius, so I named her Luna. Because the moon is the light in the darkness of night."

"Luna? Luna Lovegood is mine? But…"

"But she was held captive here for months? I know. I tried to help her, tried to send her food and bedding, but I couldn't. You had given the Dark Lord full control of the elves and I couldn't do anything for her. And after he took your wand, there was no way for you to change it so I said nothing."

"Why? Why didn't you tell me, Narcissa? After the Dark Lord fell the first time? We could have brought her home, raised her. I could have loved her."

"And take a child from the only parents she knew?" Narcissa asked, her voice weak but sharp. "Plus, I knew you hadn't changed your ways. I didn't want her to be raised in a home where the head of the family would bow down to _anyone._ And Xeno might have been strange, but he was strong."

"So why tell me now? My _daughter_ is twenty," Lucius spit the words at her.

"Xeno has died. I know our daughter is suffering. She needs to know she's not alone. Pandora and Xeno are gone and soon I will be too. But she has you and Draco. Go to her."

Lucius was angry. He wanted to scream and rage at Narcissa. He couldn't believe that she would keep something like this from him. He had fought against his own daughter in the Department of Mysteries, had sat by and done nothing as she was kept prisoner in his own home. He looked up, ready to lay into his wife, but stopped.

Her eyes were wet and her breathing shallow. He knew she didn't have much time left.

"Forgive me, Lucius?"

In that moment, he let his rage drain from him. What was the point of being angry at her when she was dying? They couldn't fight about it only to make up for hours between the sheets like they had for years. Anger had no place at the bedside of your dying wife. There was only room for love.

"I will forgive you anything, my queen, my love. I will deny you nothing."

* * *

Lucius looked up the strange house in front of him and shuddered at the thought that a Malfoy had grown up in a hovel like this. Maybe hovel was a bad example; Merlin knew this place was nicer than the Burrow, but that wasn't saying much. His daughter—a woman of Malfoy blood—should have been raised at her ancestral home. Should have grown up wanting for nothing, surrounded by the best things money could buy.

Narcissa had died within an hour of her confession about Luna. He and Draco had held her hands as she took her last breath, Hermione gripping Draco's shoulder in support. At her request, Lucius had told them about Luna. Draco sobbed at the knowledge that he had a sister that was kept from him. Hermione told them all about Luna and how they had met. Lucius had no idea his daughter-in-law was even friends with Luna because she had not been at the wedding.

Hermione had explained that Luna had suffered greatly during the last year of the war and had a hard time in large groups of people, even three years later. The two women met for tea twice a month and Lucius drank up every ounce of information Hermione gave him about his daughter. Hesitating, she had told him that her friend wasn't doing well mentally lately and she encouraged him to go see Luna and tell her everything.

" _Luna's family—the ones that raised her—are all gone now. She feels alone," Hermione said. "It will come as a shock to her, but I think Luna could use some family right about now. She's in a pretty dark place."_

With Hermione's words in his head, and a copy of Luna's birth certificate and adoption papers—both of which Narcissa had hidden from him in her personal Gringotts vault— in his left breast pocket, Lucius raised his cane to knock on her door.

He stood on the doorstep, but didn't hear the sound of approaching footsteps. Hermione had assured him that Luna rarely left her house, so he was pretty sure she was inside. He raised his cane to knock again.

Again nothing stirred inside the house. Something akin to panic started to tickle over his skin. Looking around, nothing around him seemed odd, unless you counted all the strange plants that had seemed to grow wild, obviously they were left untended.

Pulling his wand from inside his cane, he cast _Homenum Revelio_ to make sure she wasn't home. The tip of his wand lit, revealing the presence of a human inside, but before he could cancel the spell, the light faded before feebly glowing again. He stared at the wand tip for a moment, confused by the weak light before the implication of what it meant struck him.

Luna was dying.

" _Bombarda!"_ Lucius yelled, pointing his wand at the door.

He ran into the house, searching for the daughter he had just found out about. The circular kitchen on the bottom floor was empty so he made his way up to the first floor. The room, while full of papers and other junk, was dirty, but empty. Climbing the spiral staircase as quickly as he could, he entered a room with pale blue carpet. On the wall across from him was a single bed, Luna lying in the middle.

She was on her back, staring at the ceiling, and her cheeks were wet as if she'd been crying. Glancing up, Lucius looked at a painting of Hermione and a few of her Hogwarts friends before glancing back at Luna. That's when he saw it.

Her arm, dangling off the side of the bed was dripping blood into a large red puddle from a large gash on her wrist. It was clear she had tried to kill herself and wanted her last view of this world to be of her friends. Friends that she would never see again.

Now that he knew, he could see Narcissa'a delicate features on her lifeless face. They had the same turned up nose and chin, and even from here he could see their eyes were the same pale silver colour. His vision shifted and suddenly he saw Narcissa on the bed, dying before his eyes. That pulled his from his trance.

"No!" he yelled, running towards his daughter and kneeling by her side.

Knees wet with her blood, he took her wrist into his hand and pointed his wand at the cut. Sending a silent thank you to his dead friend, he began to sing _Vulnera Sanentur_ and didn't stop until the skin knitted itself back together.

"Liddy!" he called, and sighed in relief as his house-elf appeared next to him. He didn't wait for her to ask what he needed. "I need you to bring me a blood replenishing potion, dittany, and Hermione. Right away!"

She nodded and was gone. Lucius crawled onto the bed and checked Luna's other wrist to make sure it was undamaged before pressing his hand against her neck, trying to find a pulse. It was weak, but he felt it. He pointed his wand at the floor, vanishing the blood.

"Lucius?" Hermione called as soon as she appeared with Liddy. "What happened? Oh my gods! Luna?"

Lucius took the potions from his elf, and handed Hermione the dittany. He motioned towards her wrist, he told her what he had walked in on as he began to pour the blood replenishing potion down her throat. He felt for her pulse again and almost cried as he felt how much stronger it was already.

"My sweet Luna," Hermione whispered, brushing Luna's hair back from her face. "What took you to this point?" Luna was still asleep, but Hermione looked to Lucius. "We just had tea a couple of days ago. She told me life was hard, but I had no idea. I wouldn't have left her alone if I knew."

"This is _not_ your fault, Hermione. Or anyone else's."

Lucius took a deep breath. How many times had he contemplated taking his own life during the years the Dark Lord was back? It was a daily battle to stay alive while he was in Azkaban. He knew only too well that this was no one's fault. It wasn't even Luna's fault. Depression was a fact of life, and sometimes the disease killed people. Just like cancer had killed Narcissa or Dragon Pox had killed his father.

"We need to get her to St Mungo's," Lucius said, looking at how pale his daughter was.

"I think we should call the family healer instead," Hermione told him. "If we take her there, then the Daily Prophet will find out. They always have reporters in the waiting room. Luna doesn't need this kind of press. It won't help her."

Sending Liddy to go fetch the healer, Lucius cast a cleaning charm on the knees of his trousers, removing the blood from them. He conjured two chairs and sat next to Hermione as she whispered quietly to Luna. Her eyes were closed and Lucius watched the rise and fall of her chest as he waited for the healer to arrive.

"Hermione?" Luna said quietly, pulling Lucius from his thoughts. "What are you doing here? And why have you brought your father-in-law?"

"Oh, Luna!" Hermione said softly, but fervently. "Lucius came to see you, to talk to you, and he found… he found you…"

"He found me trying to kill myself?"

"He saved you."

Luna looked from Hermione to Lucius. "Thank you, Mr Malfoy. I don't know why you came over, but I think I'm glad you did."

"You're welcome, Miss…" Lucius trailed off before he said her last name. She didn't know she was a Malfoy and he wasn't willing to call her by her adopted name.

Their healer arrived and Lucius stepped out of the way as he looked Luna over. Hermione stayed by her side, never letting go of her hand. He listened intently to all of his daughter's answers and his chest hurt when she talked about why she was depressed. She had told them that even with her friends like Hermione and Ginny Potter, she still felt alone. Her whole family was dead and she just wanted to be with them; life was too hard to face without them.

Luna nodded along as the healer told her he wanted her to start taking some mood stabilising potions and that he didn't want her living alone for at least a month. He told her he'd owl her the name of a few mind healers before taking his leave.

"Luna," Hermione said, "I know the place doesn't hold good memories for you, but you're welcome to stay at Malfoy Manor with us. Or I can stay here."

Looking from Hermione to Lucius, Luna spoke. "I only saw the cellars of the Manor. As long as my room wouldn't be down there, I think I would be okay. But I don't want to inconvenience you, Mr Malfoy."

"Please, call me Lucius. And you would be welcomed at our home as long as you want to be there. I can have a room ready for you in the family wing within an hour."

She gave him a look that clearly said she was confused by his presence in her home, but smiled anyway. "Thank you… Lucius."

* * *

Luna had been in his home for a week now and it was killing Lucius not to talk to her about what he knew. He had seen her in the library a few times and they spoke politely, but he couldn't bring himself to show her the papers. He knew she was seeing a mind healer everyday and Hermione had told him a few times that she thought Luna was stable enough to hear it. Walking into the library, he saw her sitting in a window seat and decided now was as good a time as any.

"Luna?" he called. "May I speak with you?"

"Hello, Lucius," she said, patting the seat next to her. "I think I would enjoy a conversation with you. I know you've had something on your mind when you've been around me. Are you finally ready to talk about it?"

He didn't ask her how she knew. Hermione and Draco had told him Luna saw the world through a different lens than the rest of him. He wondered if she had either been blessed with the Black family Seer gene or cursed with their streak of insanity. For her sake, he hoped it was the former.

"I have something important to talk to you about, but I don't want to upset you. I know things have been hard for you, so I want to be sensitive to your feelings."

"Thank you, but I am feeling good today. I feel safe here and it's nice to not be so alone. It's like having a family again."

Lucius' heart soared at her words. He wanted her to know that she was family. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Luna. About family."

Before he lost his nerve, he told Luna everything that Narcissa had told him and added some information about how close his wife and her adopted mother had been when they were at Hogwarts together. She listened in silence, occasionally wiping tears from her face as he showed her the papers. When he asked if she believed him, she shrugged so he cast a paternity charm on both of them that confirmed what he was telling her.

"Luna, my child, I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am for the treatment you received in my home, _your_ home, during the war. I…" Lucius cut off as his throat became too thick to talk anymore.

"Lucius," Luna said, taking a deep breath and placing her hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for apologising. I forgave you and Draco, Narcissa too, a long time ago. You were all indoctrinated to that lifestyle long before I was born. And while you should have educated yourselves, I can understand that it is hard to break away from the way you were taught. I will always think of my mum and dad, Pandora and Xeno, as my parents because they raised me. But I hope that there is a place for me in your family now."

"You are my daughter, and Draco and I are your family. Hermione too. You have as large of a place in our lives as you want. I will never turn you away. For years I begged the gods to give me a daughter. And you, my Luna, are the daughter I always wanted."

* * *

Weeks turned into months, and Luna continued to live with them. Lucius cherished the moments they spent sitting together on the window seat in the library learning all about each other. They spend hours talking about Narcissa and Lucius went back to his room and cried about how unfair it was that she never got to know their daughter the way he did.

His heart almost burst every time he saw Draco and Luna interact with each other. Their personalities couldn't be further apart, but they looked so similar. Whilst his son was reserved, Luna was affectionate, and forced Draco to hug her, much to Hermione's delight. Luna's mental health improved the longer she was living with them, and he no longer worried about her when he left the Manor.

She had been living with them for a year when Hermione gave birth to his first grandchildren. A set of twins, one boy and one girl. Draco had insisted on following the Black family tradition of using celestial names, and while Lucius loved playing with Scorpius, he didn't think there was anything better than watching his daughter Luna holding his granddaughter Luna Narcissa.

For a while he was angry at all the years he missed with her. Twenty years of missed hugs, bedtime stories, and growing close. But one day he realised he had two choices. He could be bitter about the time lost, or cherish the time they had together now. One day Luna would fall in love and move out, and until then, he was going to spend as much time as he could getting to know the daughter he had always wanted.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to LuxLouise for encouraging me to write something so far from my normal style
> 
> Find me on Tumblr (tridogmom)


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